Gervinho scores two as Arsenal see off Cologne

Gervinho scored at the double in his Arsenal debut in a 2-1 win over Cologne. The Ivory Coast star, a summer capture for £11m from French outfit Lille, showed he has a real goal touch with an opener after just six minutes and a second after 15 minutes. The first goal came after superb play from Jack Wilshere, while Theo Walcott provided the pass from the right.

New boy Carl Jenkinson scored a horrific, bizarre own goal just before half-time when he somehow looped the ball over Wojciech Szczęsny. How he managed it God only knows.

The home side pressed but couldn’t nick an equaliser while we had chances with AA23 and Tom Rosicky going closest. AW made wholsesale changes for the second half, which saw RVP and Samir Nasri coming on.

Youngster Connor Henderson was taken off on a stretcher at the death after suffering an injury to his right ankle. Aaron Ramsey has just tweeted: “Fans were great today!was a good game for us to play in,apart from what happened at the end,hope that conor henderson has a speedy recovery!”

Now Wilshere has added his thoughts on Twitter. He said: “Happy with the win and the support from the #AFC fans….not happy that @Henderson_91 got injured! Fingers crossed he is okay!”

In other news, Sky Sports are reporting Ipswich, Burnley and Portsmouth have agreed a fee with Arsenal for Jay Emmanuel-Thomas.

The biggest problem Arsenal will have this season is left back. Gibbs (as Clichy has done for many years) plays as a left winger. A lot of Cologne’s attacks came down our left with Gibbs stuck uip field. Arsenal need either to tell Gibbs to defend or buy a Left back as opposed to a wing back. We have enough going forward surely.Aside from the own goal (unlucky in my opinion) Carl Jenkinson had a good game and most notibly seems to be back defending quite often.Gervinho CLASS!

frankie frankie

A coupleof notable thing from todays game.1)Wilshire is super class. but we knew that.2)Chamahk and Vela are Rubbish.3)Djuorou and Squillaci are a liabilty.4)Left area needs looking at.5)Walcott, Gervinho and Myiachi are pure speed machines and i’m getting tingles at the thought of them playing together.6)Arshavin is fat.7)Van Persie needs to be a liitle more selfish.8) A big strong quick striker is needed. Lukaku please Arsene. and another defender.

TrueGooner

Frankie… Vela is not rubbish. Maybe you should ask your coach why play him on the right wing when he’s not comfortable there. He is a striker who has the ability to cut in from the left.

Edward Gibbs was good today. He only had the problem in the second half when arshavin non-defending self came on. It’s the problem that Clichy faced when he played with Arshavin ahead of him. You should know arsenal plays with both full back attacking so it’s not their fault when they don’t make it back in time. You should also remember Jenkins got caught up front as well several times in the first half.

MJD42

If we were going to make a bid for any Everton defender personally I would try for Leighton Baines and buy either Cahill or Samba.

edwardspencer

I did not say gibbs was not good it is just that he spends so much time attacking and not enough defending. If you watch gthe 1st half and compare him to Jenkinson you can see that he did not get back enough times to help the defence as opposed to Jenkinson who did.That as you say is the Arsenal way but against a better team we would have conceded more goals.

james mc daid

Defending is outrageous,totally clueless,our coaching staff should be ashamed off themselves,that is if we have defensive coaches and if we dont then our next signing should be one,pub teams defend better than Arsenal,its a disgrace.

frankie frankie

Ok, maybe rubbish is a bit harsh on Vela. But he doesn’t fit in to this team. Wenger doesn’t look like he is going to change this formation anytime soon whether on the right or left he is too weak and doesn get back to help. He doesn’t have the pace of walcott or arshavin and now Myiachi and gervinho are coming in his chances in those positions will be limited. Wenger wont trust him upfront on his own so where does he fit? Yes if he gets 1 on 1 he will produce a nice little chip but that is it. I’m sorry. It doesn’t matter where he plays, he will not be good enough for this team. Wenger can use him as bait to bring in someone better, Like Lukaku who is big and strong and wenger can mould him into being a brilliant striker. Wenger doesn’t trust Vela so he just tells him to play on the wing. Its the same with Bendtner, so you have to judge them on the way they play. I wish he was better but he isnt. out of position or not.

Aussie Jack

Nice to hear Gervino made his mark early, so did Chamakh let`s not get carried away.Wenger must employ a left back and a centre back before the season starts or you can put the glasses down.

Aussie Jack

For some reason I`m a fan of Vela, maybe it`s because he seems to have been kicked about a bit. It`s true he is a striker who lkes to come in from the left and Wenger has played out of position so many times he`s got a poor reputation.If I were Vela I`d have to be considering my options, you only live once.

What?!

What?! Seriously, i’d have to say that if Vela was in another club, Arsenal will be eyeing him as top targets in transfer. Appreciate his ability. He can score, he can beat defenders, and can definetly beat 1 on 1 with keepers. Go ‘Bandolero’!!!

SuperRob7

The bad thing about Vela is that he isn’t ruthless in front of goal. Don’t get me wrong, I think he is a very good finisher but I think he would prefer not to score attempting something that looks pretty, rather than just place it hard in the corners and just scoring.

Many times he hesitates and tries to think of something clever he can do (even when he has an open goal) instead of just kicking it hard into the corners.

Devi

How can you say Arshavin is Fat? He lost a lot of weight before the summer vacation. I think he have never been thinner than this since he came to Arsenal.